nter, the youngest brother, seems to have had very little share
in the plot, and most fervently denied any knowledge of it whatever.
Gerard (see _ante_) asserts that he was engaged in it, and Gertrude
Winter bore witness that he came to Huddington with the other
conspirators on November 7th. His own amusing narrative is to the
effect that Grant asked him on the 4th of November, if he would go to a
horse-race, and he answered that he would if he were well; that on the
5th, he went to "a little town called Rugby," where he and others supped
and played cards; that a messenger came to them and said, "The gentlemen
were at Dunchurch, and desired their company to be merry;" that at
Holbeach he "demanded of Mr Percy and the rest, being most of them
asleep, what they meant to do," and they answered that they would go on
now; and shortly afterwards he left them. (_Gunpowder Plot Book_,
article 110). John Winter was imprisoned, but released. There is no
evidence to show that he was married.

JOHN AND CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT.

Concerning the parentage of these brothers, I can find no more than that
they were of the family of Wright of Plowland, in Holderness, Yorkshire.
They were cousins of Robert Winter, perhaps through his mother; were
both schoolfellows of Guy Fawkes, and "neighbours' children." John
Wright originally lived at Twigmore, in Lincolnshire, and removed to
Lapworth, in Warwickshire, when he became a party to the plot. He was
the first layman whom Catesby took into his confidence, Thomas Winter
being the second, and Fawkes the third. Like so many of the others, the
brothers were involved in Essex's rebellion. They were perverts, and
since their perversion John had been "harassed with persecutions and
imprisonment." Greenway says he was one of the best swordsmen of his
time. Gerard describes him as "a gentleman of Yorkshire, not born to
any great fortune, but lived always in place and company of the better
sort. In his youth, very wild and disposed to fighting... He grew to
be staid and of good, sober carriage after he was Catholic, and kept
house in Lincolnshire, where he had priests come often, both for his
spiritual comfort and their own in corporal helps. He was about forty
years old, a strong and a stout man, and of a very good wit, though slow
of speech: much loved by Mr Catesby for his valour and secrecy in
carriage of any business." Of Christopher he says that "though he were
not like him [John] in f